Posted by: Alex. Yesterday I took a trip with my class to Appleton Farms. We took a big
long bus to get there. It was fun even though it was kind of cold and
rained on us a little, too. We are learning about soil in Mrs.
Graziano's class, so we looked for bugs in the soil. We got a little box
to look through and I found a spider. Then I put the bug in the box,
but then I let it crawl back out.
We ate lunch in the barn. Mommy packed
me a sandwich, crackers and a banana. There were horse
stalls in the barn, but they did not have real horses in them. I saw
baby cows, mom cows and a bull. One of the baby cows was named Peaches
and the other was named Emily. I got to see chickens too. After lunch we
had recess in one of the fields, except it had walls around it so it
wasn't that big. I played tag with my friends.
I saw a lot of vegetables
that they were selling at the farm and also got to see a big compost
pile. The pile was smoking because the dirt is hot and it was cold
outside. I had a really fun time.
Our girl turned 3 today. This is the first birthday we've celebrated since moving away from our hometown, and it definitely felt a little different. Had we still been in Pennsylvania, we'd probably be throwing an awesome little party tomorrow and celebrating with our family and friends. They all did a great job, though, of making Lizze feel loved from so far away. After bugging me for cake for breakfast (the girl loves her sweets!), she got to sit down and open the presents her Grandmom & Pop-Pop and Mom-Mom, Pop-Pop Paul & Aunt Amber had sent. She tore into them with squeals and giggles and finished just in time for Mom-Mom to call first thing in the morning to offer up some birthday love. Watching her on the phone with my mom was the most precious and entertaining thing. She already has the girlish hand gestures down pat and I can only picture her ten years from now chatting away with her girlfriends about world affairs clothing and boy bands. She spent most of the day riding up and down the sidewalk on her new bike and dragging her beloved stuffed animal Monkey along for the ride. That poor Monkey has been through everything with her! She could not wait for her daddy and brothers to get home so she could have her cake. I tried convincing her that maybe we should put a candle in an apple instead, but she was having none of it. Our family tradition is that the birthday boy or girl gets to pick the dinner for the day, so we had one of Lizze's favorites: "sketti." She's like her mama, could eat pasta all day. Hopefully she burns her carbs better than me, though :) After dinner, it was finally time to light the candles! I made her a butter cake with chocolate icing and it was delicious! I tried my hand at a homemade pennant banner that spelled out her name for the cake decoration. I saw it on Pinterest and thought it was adorable, and it turned out to be super simple too. Just as we were finishing up with the cake, Grandmom and Pop-Pop called and sang "Happy Birthday" to her on the speaker phone. I wish I could have taken a picture of her face while they were singing, her smile stretched from ear to ear and her eyes were filled with amazement. Later she asked me why she couldn't see Grandmom & Pop-Pop. It's hard to explain to a 3 year old the concept of distance but one day she'll understand. I hope her day was as special as she'd hoped it to be and I can not wait to see what milestones she reaches in the coming year and how her personality continues to develop. Tomorrow we are all going to a carnival in Salem to continue celebrating since today was a school/workday and we couldn't do anything really special. The kids are looking forward to the rides, I'm looking forward to the fried dough :)
I really like my new school. My teacher’s name is Mrs. Shevory. Right now we are learning about space in science and are reading “The Witches” by Roald Dahl. I really enjoy that book because it is interesting to me and it’s about witches. My best friend in school is named Ethan, he is really smart. My other best friend is Gianni because we both like the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books. The other night we saw the Salem Halloween Parade. I had a great time, the most fun I ever had. We saw The Ghostbusters, a Haunted House float, and I got a lot of candy. I am really liking living here because there are a lot of kids on my street that I can go outside and play with and ride our bikes. I also like all of the Halloween stuff in Salem, I want to go to a Haunted House soon. I started playing violin at school and I like it except that I can’t use the bow yet because we haven’t been taught. Right now we are learning to pluck the strings with our fingers. I know how to read the music notes in the book now. It’s starting to get cold out and there are a lot of leaves falling on the ground in our yard. Mommy says we can rake them up one weekend and we’ll jump in the pile. I can’t wait until it snows because my friends up the street make an ice rink in their yard and have extra ice skates I can borrow. I have never gone ice skating before so I can’t wait to do that.
Hi everyone! On Saturday we got to tour a big ship called The Peacemaker. It sailed here from Georgia and is right near The Friendship in Salem. I got to go to the very top and it was so cool. I go to the ocean a lot and I like it so much. I find a lot of animals under rocks there. We saw a big clam. I got a lot of candy at the parade in Salem and we got to go trick-or-treating already with the mayor. We will go again on Halloween and there will be fireworks. I like fireworks but Bubby doesn’t. I started playing soccer with the Marblehead team and I love it! I kicked a goal 6 times and am learning a lot of new things from my coaches. My coach is a professional soccer player and he is really good. At school I made a cool ship with the legos. We are learning about soil in science and we are going to Appleton Farms on Friday for a field trip. We are also learning about maps in school and I made a map of my room. I read a bunch of Magic Treehouse books, they are my favorite. My best friends in school are Jack and Clark. They play superheroes with me at recess. Jack is Mario and I am a power ranger. Whatever color shirt I have on that day is what color ranger I am. I have so many friends here, I am friends with everyone.
Pop-Pop and Donnie came up to visit and I was glad because I missed them. We got to go to Fenway. It rained but I had so much fun even though the Red Sox lost. It poured on us and we went into the bathroom for safety. I danced too. I saw some guys twirling around and dancing on their heads when we were in Boston. Mommy says it’s called break-dancing. I want to do that when I am older. I love Boston more than Marblehead and I want to live there when I am older.
Posted by: Sherry The leaves are turning crimson and orange, the air is getting chillier, the whole town smells like wet leaves from the four straight days of rain we’ve had, and the Halloween season has officially kicked off in Salem. I have always loved October, but October in Salem is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Halloween is not just one day, no way…here in Salem it’s an entire month long! I walked through town on the 1st of the month and people were out (some in costume) decorating their homes with orange lights, putting fake boards over their windows, hanging home-made ghosts, and setting up be-headed scarecrows on their porches. Downtown is filled with cornstalks, mums, and pumpkins that offer an abundance of rich colors and autumn rusticity while complimenting the old cobblestone pathways and early Federal-style homes.
Last night was the Grand Halloween Parade, which marks the kick-off the Halloween festivities here in Salem. The kids had so much fun and went to bed with candy-filled bellies and happy hearts. We saw everything from witches on segways to the Ghostbusters crew and tons of pirates, including Jack Sparrow! We met up with one of Stephen’s students and her dad who showed us the best spot to watch from. She was so excited to be the first in Mr. Croft’s class to meet his whole family. We ended the night dancing in the Common with hundreds of other people who came out to help get Halloween in Salem started. Stephen’s student told the boys that “the witch city is the best place on Earth to be a kid.” I think it’s the best place on Earth to be an adult, too :)
Tonight the kids are going trick-or-treating with Mayor Driscoll along Essex Street and tomorrow we have a jam-packed day. The kids will be attending Professor Wunders’ School of Magic at The Witches Cottage. Then there is the Biz Baz Street Fair where there will be street performers, live music and tons of unique vendors. We’ll head over to the Common for some good old fashioned family fun: face painting, rides, more street performers! The kids will get to make a wand with a real Salem witch and then we’ll watch the hundreds of zombies walk through town during the Annual Zombie Walk! We’ll end the day back in the Common and watch Hocus Pocus beneath the stars with blankets and snacks. Hocus Pocus is my favorite Halloween movie and it will be so awesome to watch it right in the Common, where parts of the movie were filmed and around all of the other sites that were also featured in the movie.
We have so much planned for the rest of the month, too. Everything from a haunted harbor cruise to evening ghost walks, a Witches Ball and a flash mob dance to Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way”. But most of all, I absolutely can not wait until Halloween night. There are ghost stories and witches circles, candlelit walks through the century-old cemeteries, hundred of kids skipping around in their costumes basking in the mystery and thrill of the night. And it all ends with fireworks over the North River, marking the end of Halloween in Salem and leaving everyone waiting for next year when we can do it all again.
Posted by: Sherry It’s been a little more than two months since we packed up and moved north. I’ll admit, the first few weeks were a bit rough as we adjusted to our new town. The roads are different, the drivers are much more aggressive, the accent takes some getting used to, and the overall lifestyle is very different from the little town we left behind in Pennsylvania. Fast forward 68 days, and we’re like “Pennsylvania who??”
It’s so funny to talk to people up here and see their reaction as to how we ended up here. “You did what?” “How?” “Why?” “Don’t you miss your families?” “We’ve always talked about moving away, but I never could…” “That’s so cool; I wish I could do that!”
Yes, there is something very terrifying about moving away and starting fresh. But there’s also something extremely thrilling about it! For us it’s been nothing but new experiences, new opportunities, new cultures. It’s been a chance to explore the world outside of the confines of the town we’d always known. At some point, when you want it bad enough, it comes to the point where the fear of the regret of not doing it becomes more powerful than the fear of actually doing it.
For as long as we’ve been together, we’ve dreamt about moving away. But it always seemed to be that either we just weren’t ready, or the timing wasn't right, or we didn’t have the financial means. And I’m actually a bit grateful because I am sure we wouldn’t have ended up where we are today, had we moved away sooner. We originally thought we’d be going South. It intrigued us…sun and sand all year long. Heck yeah! But then we had kids and the schools began to matter and…the schools in the areas we were looking into kind of turned us away.
We stumbled across Salem during a 2010 family vacation to Boston. My dad had the idea of taking the ferry from Boston to Salem and I am sure looking back, he probably wishes we had picked something else to do that day. We stepped off the ferry and into the town that would eventually become our home. And we knew it right away. I remember that day very vividly. It was rainy and a bit chilly for June. We took a trolley tour around downtown and I thought we had stepped back in time.
Everything about Salem captivated us. For two history lovers, the historical aspect of it probably played a huge part. But the ocean! In Salem, you’re never more than a few minutes from water and for me that was huge. I’ve always had a strong connection to the sea and that has always been one of the main reasons I wanted to move away from Pennsylvania. Blue Marsh Lake is nice, but it’s not the ocean. And then there’s the fact that Salem is one train ride into the heart of Boston. Culture! Opportunities for the kids that would never be as easily available to them in little Robesonia, Pa. Stephen turned to me and I knew exactly what he was going to say…”this is it.”
For some, choosing to uproot your family and your life may seem a bit crazy. A lot of people voiced those opinions to us while we were preparing for the move, and some I am sure thought we probably wouldn’t even go through with it at all. But, our philosophy has always been that you have to risk all to gain all. Sometimes you have to step off the straight, well-lit path and into the murky, scary one to get to where you’re going. And doing it with three kids in tow poses an even greater risk. Their well-being comes before our dreams and desires and if I hadn’t thought this move would benefit them, there is no way I would have gone through with it. I had the faith that all would be okay, and it has turned out to be better than I imagined.
Moving here was a big change for us, not only in location but also in lifestyle. We moved from a 2500 sq house that we owned, to a 1200 sq foot half of a house that we rent. We donated/sold/got rid of more than half of our belongings when we moved. We went from being a two car family who drove everywhere to being a one car family who rarely uses it at all. We realized that we thrive with less and that experiences matter much more to us than things.
There’s a saying that living coastal causes you to plan by the tides, and I never would have realized how true that is. Every day, I get asked at least once by one of the kids, “is it low tide or high tide right now?” It matters here. Low tide means we can go swimming, or walking along the edge of the ocean or digging in the tide pools for crabs, sand dollars and starfish. High tide means we’re going down to the harbor to watch the boats come in and out because at high tide, our beach has no beach (the water comes right up to the rocks), or that we’re going to Fort Sewall to watch the high water splash on the rocks.
The downfall, of course, is being so far from our families. I spend a lot more time on the phone with my mom and texting my dad or sister than I ever did before. I see pictures of my nieces and nephews and want so bad to squeeze them but I know it will be awhile until we’ll see them. But I think the time we do get with them from now on will be a lot more meaningful. And this experience has definitely brought our little family closer together. Most certainly a risk well worth it, in my opinion :)
Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride. - John F. Kennedy
We discovered the Marblehead bike trail this past week. We rode it into Salem, about 4.2 miles there, so a little over 8 miles total. It also goes right into downtown Marblehead, which is nice because the roads are very narrow near Old Town and this will be a much better way to explore town.
It is fun living here in Marblehead. We went to the Maritime Festival in Salem where I got to hold a real live starfish. It was really soft and kind of squishy and slimy. We also saw a live one in the harbor when we were sitting on the dock by the lighthouse looking down into the water, and it was white. It buried itself under the sand, I could see it digging down. And I saw a huge white shrimp. I also got to touch a flounder and a lot of small crabs. I held the crabs and got pinched by one but it didn’t really hurt because it didn’t get me too good. I made a kite at the festival, too and we got to fly it on Derby Wharf while we were waiting to make wooden sailboats. We got to go on The Friendship which is a huge sailboat and see where the crew sleeps. I also got to go on a paddle board. Mom was scared I was going to fall off into the harbor but I did great and really want one of my own now. I stood up on it and never fell.
We also took a trip to Harvard, which is a university near Boston. We saw a lot of old buildings and walked around. Mommy and I went into a bookstore and I got to pick a book. I picked “Boy” by Roald Dahl. I haven’t started reading it yet because I have so much more to read yet. The bookstore was huge and was really cool.
I love my new house. I went to the beach near my house. I love going to the beach and riding the waves with my body board. I really want a surf board or a paddle board. Maybe soon. We got a Lizze a new tube to sit in the water, I hope she will like it. I used to have one just like it. Sometimes we find clams, crabs and shrimp in the puddles in the rocks. I went to the Maritime Festival and did a muck walk and found a bunch of crabs there too. That was fun and Mommy signed us up to adopt the beach near our house so we can keep it clean and make sure no one is putting trash on the beach which can get into the ocean. Sea turtles like to eat jellyfish and sometimes they can mistake a plastic bag for a jellyfish which is not good at all. I love sea turtles and all the sea animals. We found a stingray on the beach and tried to save it by putting it back in the water but a seagull got it back out. I felt sad for the stingray but Daddy said seagulls have to eat too. We took a picture of it.
“Happy. Just in my swim suit, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running—that’s the way to live. All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach by the sigh of the sea out there.” - Jack Kerouac
Today we had an absolute blast on the beach. We went down at low tide to watch the storm roll in. I've never seen anything so incredible. We ended up getting poured on and had to run out of the water and up the rocks to jump into the van, but I'm pretty sure this is some of the best living I've done in awhile!
Yesterday marked a week since our move and we are settling into our new apartment and town nicely. There is so much to see and do. So far we have been spending a lot of our time unpacking and organizing (bleh, I know). We took a trip to Ikea for some furniture and got a taste of the Boston traffic…not fun! I will definitely be using public transportation when I don’t need to transport a sofa and beds.
We got the boys officially enrolled in their new school. They’ll be going to the Glover School in Marblehead, which we’ve been told is a really great school. The Glover School building is actually under construction this year, so they will be going to Glover@Village (they combined Glover with another school in the district, The Village School). When we went to register them, we got to see a bit of the school and the boys’ reaction was that it “was very fancy”. It is a really neat building, I think they will be happy there. They’re both really excited to start, their first day is September 4th.
Friday night we ended the busy week with ice cream on the beach. Devereaux Beach has a nice little food hut right by the water with more food than you could imagine - fried clams, veggie sandwiches, fries, burgers and a ton more options. We went for the ice cream - delicious! The kids made some friends on the beach and ran around with them for awhile while we relaxed. Then Saturday I woke up at 5am and decided to head to Chandler Hovey Park while the kids and Stephen slept. I was greeted with the view above and I actually pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.
This town is so perfect for us. It is a very chill lifestyle, and everyone is just so happy. It is very outdoors centered (biking, hiking, beach-going), which is just what we were looking for since we are such an active family. It is a definite walking town, and there is a ton to do within walking distance from our apartment. There is also a strong sense of community, which is something that was very important to me and something our old town really lacked. I found a local beach conservation volunteer group and plan on getting involved with them and meeting fellow ocean lovers and hopefully making some new friends. The boys have already found a few new friends. There are two boys on our street, just a few houses down named Aiden and Connor who are also 7 & 8. Their mom is also super nice, she’s been very helpful with helping us get info on baseball teams in the area (for Stephen Jr) and the local theater that has acting classes (for Alex). I just need to find gymnastics classes for Lizze, which I am sure the local YMCA has. She’s really into tumbling right now so I think she’d enjoy it and give her a chance to make some new friends too :)
Well we are finally here, the u-haul is unloaded and the unpacking begins. There are certain things that are going to take a while to get used to. For starters, the New England accent. I could hardly understand what the gentleman at the grocery store said as he was directing me to the aisle with plastic forks. Second, the lack of a fence around the yard. It was real nice to be able to let the dog out whenever he scratched at the door. How we actually need to hook him to a leash and take a stroll around the block, at least there is extra exercise involved. (However, having to pick-up the fecal matter with a plastic bag is kind of a downer.) The roads up here are, shale we say, a cluster f***. I think I could live here for 15 years and still get lost, there is no rhyme or reason to half the roads here. What I find to be amazing though is how much this place feels like home. Sherry and I were discussing this evening how she feels like this is a vacation, but I don’t feel that way. I feel like this is where I belong, like this is home. Maybe my thoughts will change when snow starts to fall in a few months, but right now this feels right. I am heading into my classroom this week to begin set-up, I will be sure to post pictures of my progress.
Two years ago we took a family vacation to Salem, Massachusetts and felt like we had finally found our spot in the world. It’s been a long and exhausting road to get here, but this Saturday we make the big trip from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts! We are so excited for this next step in our lives and can’t wait to share our family adventures with everyone!
